KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – For the first time since 2008, the Indian government on Wednesday allotted 14 coal blocks to thermal power generating companies, ensuring new electricity generation capacity of 32 000 MW.

According to the Coal Ministry, these blocks have been allocated to companies owned and controlled by the federal government, like NTPC Limited and Neyveli Lignite Corporation, as well as to provincial power utilities.

The 14 blocks had an estimated resource of 8.3-billion tons of thermal grade coal and were expected to yield 159-million tons a year of feedstock to the various proposed thermal plants across 15 Indian provinces.

The allocation of the coal blocks after a five-year hiatus, would ensure coal linkages to power generation capacities of government-owned companies, entailing an aggregate investment of around $26.5-billion over the next five years, the Coal Ministry said in a statement.

In response to a notice issued in December 2012, the Coal Ministry received 318 responses of which 128 were found to be eligible. The blocks were allotted to three federal-controlled companies and 15 owned by provincial governments.

However, the Coal Ministry said it had allotted some of the blocks, like one in the eastern Indian province of West Bengal, to more than one company given the large reserves available.

India allocates coal blocks to private companies through auctions and the Ministry has identified 40 blocks private investors in steel and coal sector could bid for.

However, unlike government companies, which gain access to coal blocks through the preferential route, private investors face uncertainties.

According to officials with the country’s Criminal Bureau of Investigation, which, under the supervision of the Supreme Court, is probing earlier allocations of coal blocks, the Coal Ministry would not hurry through new allocations to private companies without making the process foolproof and insulating it against any new allegations.